First Solar is an incredible company and they are currently gaining in a big way. The gains we’ve seen through the past couple of trading sessions are well-deserved. Yesterday, the company released its earnings report, blowing away expectations on all fronts. Today, we’ll talk about what we saw from the earnings report, how investors reacted to the news, and what we can expect to see from FSLR moving forward. So, let’s get right to it…

First Solar Releases An Incredible Earnings Report

As mentioned above, First Solar released its earnings report for the fourth quarter yesterday before the opening bell as expected. However, the results were anything but expected, leading to quite a bit of investor excitement. Here’s what we saw from the report…

Earnings Per Share – The biggest source of excitement from the FSLR earnings report came from the earnings per share that was released. While analysts expected the company to generate $0.80 per share, the company actually generated earnings that doubled those expectations at $1.60 per share.

Revenue – In terms of top-line revenue, the company didn’t double expectations, but it definitely did better than expected. For the fourth quarter, analysts expected that FSLR would generate revenue in the amount of $931 million. However, the company actually generated revenue in the amount of $942.3 million.

As you can see from the information above, the earnings report was overwhelmingly positive. Not only did First Solar beat top-line revenue expectations by a wide margin, the company literally doubled expectations with regard to earnings. This is what led to the investor excitement and is helping to continue pushing the stock upward.

How The Market Reacted To The News

As investors, we know that any time there is positive news with regard to a publicly traded company, we can expect to see gains in the value of the stock associated with that company. However, there are few bits of news that have the ability to cause massive growth, or massive declines quite like earnings. Naturally, with the overwhelmingly positive earnings report, we saw strong gains on FSLR yesterday with the stock closing the day up more than 10%. Today, the upward momentum continues. Currently (1:41), FSLR is trading at $72.00 per share after a gain of $2.55 per share or 3.67% thus far today.

What We Can Expect To See Moving Forward

Moving forward, I have an overwhelmingly bullish expectation with regard to what we can expect to see from FSLR. The company has proven its ability time and time again to produce solid earnings, and lets face it… investors are investing for growth, and solid earnings are a clear indication of just that. Also, with the energy industry changing in a big way as the world looks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This will lead to a reduction in reliance on fossil fuels and further demand for renewable energy resources like solar. All in all, things are looking great for FSLR.

What Do You Think?

Where do you think FSLR is headed moving forward? Let us know your opinion in the comments below!

First Solar (FSLR) Stock Soars on Strong Earnings

Joshua Rodriguez is the owner and founder of CNA Finance. He is also a partner here at Modest Money. His analysis has been featured on Investing.com, Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, Google News, and many others. To connect with Joshua, follow him on Twitter @CNAFinance.

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About the Author

Joshua Rodriguez is the owner and founder of CNA Finance. He is also a partner here at Modest Money. His analysis has been featured on Investing.com, Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, Google News, and many others. To connect with Joshua, follow him on Twitter @CNAFinance.